Incidentally, I, along with everyone else, recently read Armageddon Outta Here, (and then loaned it to a friend). I had the opportunity to reread the dedication in The End of The World. I actually have a story about the Skulduggery Pleasant cover art. If you had told me this series was horror, I would not have even started it. I listened to the first three books on audiobook before I ever saw a cover. If I had seen a cover with a huge, menacing skull on it, I would not have read the book. Funnily enough, after having read said books, I must sat that I love horror as a genre, and enjoy all the cover art. The books have truly opened my mind to new things.

Unfortunately, I live in America. It has been my ambition to come to Ireland for the release of the final Skulduggery book ever since I discovered the series. In order to go, I would have to miss school, so of course, it's out of the question. I had hoped, however, to participate in the Theatre of Shadows, and was disappointed to see that participation in twitter was also required.

If there is a place to say it, it may as well be on the front page of the comments of a new post: The reason that I have not been here, and most likely shall not be here for the foreseeable future, is due to complications in my author's condition and the exhausting nature of their treatment.

Hopefully they shall grow acclimated, however, until that possibility comes to pass, they are, quite simply, not ready to face Blogland again. Thank you for your understanding.

*hugs Star*Well, your schoolfriends always sound pretty great. :)And, you can still talk via phone/internet/actually-real-life-face-to-face-meeting-people through the summer?And, when you come back after summer, it'll be super-cool to see them all again. :)

I'm really confused. Is the London thing just the Reqiuem Ball? Or is there a signing that day too? Because people have been saying both and I'm so confuddled and I can't answer asks on my tumblr because of my confusion. :P

@Luce: Looking at the blog post, it only specifies the 6-8PM ball/party part. I don't see any MENTION of a daytime signing?I don't know where people would have got that information, but my assumption would be just the Requiem Ball, on account that I haven't seen otherwise. But, idk, so, yeah. :P / :)

And Derek sort of implied it on Twitter. Also, there's ALWAYS a London signing, so... :I

Uggggggh. This sucks so hard. I spent weeks convincing my mum to let me go to London for the last SP book and she finally came around and I'm 99% certain that I won't get tickets because I have THE WORST luck and uggggggh:/

@Luci: Oh? Well, I don't know, then. Have you asked him on Twitter? That's the best I can do. :/

And, I suppose where you're at now is at least better than already having tickets and then not being allowed to go? I guess you can just hope that your luck will improve? I hope you end up getting to go, anyhow. But you'll still have Sheffield, if you don't. Good luckies. :) ^^

I won't get to go:( I suck at drawing anyway and I'm annoying as frick so I definitely won't get to go, haha. I have the worst luck. Already giving up.Yeah... Sheffield will be good. Just not all my friends will be there, haha.

@Taia: I don't have most of their numbers. And I never text people. And talking online isn't the same. But yeah.:)*hugs*Plus it isn't the talking, with most of them. I guess it's just going to school and knowing you have people you can hang around with, and being able to be in a group and have fun and laugh . . .And most of them, if we were talking purely to talk to each other, I wouldn't know what to say. It's hard enough to engineer conversation anyway.But yeah. :)

It's odd that you can't find the sign-up page, though.For me, on the page that the link directs to, there's an button saying 'Theatre of Shadows REmote Operatives: Register now', which links to the sign-up page, which is:http://www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk/register-for-theatre-of-shadows/Does that work for you? ^^

I worked out sometime last year that if you had a good time with your friends at lunch, the day always seemed so much brighter and more cheerful . . .Yeah.I guess it's just that feeling of happiness, you know? Of having people you can be with, people who you love just for being them, people who'll accept you and you know you can always hang out with them . . . because it always really sucks at school in situations like . . . like in lessons when you're allowed to work with your friends and you don't have any and you just end up standing there to see who's left at the end and if they'll want you and then you just tag on and don't end up saying much and other times you just end up going around on your own. I was analysing loneliness today, and it's a blanket of silence. It just falls on you and presses on you, and it's like there's this bubble around you, and you half feel as if your ability to talk has just been supressed, and it's just so empty and lifeless by yourself, and you think about the people who feel like this every day and feel really bad for them and I'm thinking maybe I should go around helping lonely people a bit more . . .But anyway. :)

@Luce: It may not be drawing skills, so much as designing skills? And also, he said there are other opportunities to win, still. And, like, you rule, so. idk. I think ruling should give you a pretty good chance, but, like, that's just me. :PBut, yeah. I'm still wishing you good luck. *hugs*

Everyone has creativity. The only reason you think you're the least creative person is because you believe that and don't use it. You get more creativity when you use it because one stupid idea leads to another great one.

@zaf: GO OFF ROUE AND MAPREAD!!!!!!!!!!!! *screams* *adores doing that* *the other . . . month? Year? there was a traffic jam so I mapread us off the road and around this mountain (eh. Big hill small mountain) and all the way along small roads and it was so fun and then we got back on the motorway and drove home)(Mapreading is basically like Hama Beads or Sequin Art or word art. I've been doing things like that my whole life in my free time, so. :P)

I have been saying that he may be going to the US, it makes so much sense. If it was Australia he'd have gone, now the US, he would be secretive. In our defense, maybe this is HC saying they'll try again, I mean sometimes its better to send the author over. I'd never have read Wanted by Gordon Korman if I hadn't met the guy in 7th grade. -Zaf

Sorry, I'm just feeling really crappy and especially guilty about certain people leaving after some of the e-mails I've received from said people. I re-read them earlier. I just feel like I want to cry or be sick or something, but I can't. I'm just being bitchy, I'm really sorry.

@Star: *nods* Yeah, I can relate to that. I guess, enjoy your summer for what it gives you, and then enjoy school for what IT gives you? That's the way I look at it. Like, I take my summer time to draw and write and watch some TV things and read, and draw a lot more because of inspiration from the writing and words and television.I have been drawing SO much, and it's weird because even in the past few weeks, I've seen my drawing abilities improve quite a lot, like, it's visible, and I like that. I've learned at home, just in a different way to in school.And in September, I'm going to be in familiar classrooms full of unfamiliar people, and I'll be in lunchtimes with familiar people (although less of them. :/), and I'll have all of the quirky school-friends and classroom antics to enjoy there.They're both still enjoyable, just different. YOu take them for what they can offer you, I guess?SO, yeah. :) ^^

@Derekgoingtoahot place: He goes to Aus every two years. He didn't go last year. He's due to go this year. :P Sorry.

Writing is so much more than that, Luce. That's like saying music is just sound.Words have given me so much.@Elleni: :) :) :)@Mushroom: Yeah. But maybe you can do what Elleni says, and try and think off them. :)

And it's fine, Mushroom. It's fine. *hugs* Cry if you want to.

@Taia: I guess so. :) *hugs* That's wise. :)And - yeah. There's so much I can't do during term time . . . D: It really sucks.

@Elleni: No. But I know exactly what it means. *nods*Books have given me so much, I'm serious. Saying writing is just string symbols together is like saying that a person is just an animal that you can communicate with . . .

Dear Blogland: I am going to camp on Monday, which means I will not be permitted any technology, which will mean I cannot visit Blogland.*clutches heart**soft weeping*Please, do not forget me in this, my hour of need. Think of me, think of me fondly, when I've said goodbye. Remember me once in a while, please promise me you'll try.

@Elleni: YOu say some grand things, there. *agrees, and stores them in her brain*

And, Lucy - But it's stringing words together in such a way that you pour meaning into them, and that their meaning pours into others when they read them. It's about getting across your ideas through words which should act as limits, and it's about GIVING ideas, whether you intended them or not, to others. WOrds are only letters. But in being an author, you are giving them meanings, so that each word and letter is more than lines and symbols, it's meaning. Words are only small things which mean nothing, unless you know how to manipulate them so that they do mean something. A sunrise will never be made of golden blood unless you describe it as such, or a river will never be liquid crystal unless you select those words to convey that meaning.I don't know if what I'm saying makes sense, but it is important. There's a reason why literature is an art, and it's the same reason that makes you an artist, Luce. :)

Trust me, I know I am right. Words are just collections of symbols which represent sounds. In its most basic form, writing is the stringing together of symbols in order to create words, which then develop into sentences and paragraphs and sometimes chapters and you can create worlds and lives and plots with just a few symbols. You cannot deny that a story is just a collection of symbols or sounds, because that is what it is when traced to its roots.

@Taia: #tearsineyesMushroom, pretend I said what Taia said.Because that's what I meant, but I didn't have the confidence that I'd manage to say it well enough.(Or I thought that I would probably ramble off, which would ruin it, and also I didn't really want to put all the effort into trying to make it sound okay when no one really cared and then I'd feel like I'd gone on about it for nothing and never really summed up what I wanted to say. Because like I said, I wasn't confident I could sum it up.)

*raises hand*On a lighter note, I'd like to know what you people think about something that happened to me recently. I've asked my 'real life' friends about it, but they have yet to get back to me, so I'd like to know what you think.

Also, I dislike the term 'real life' friends. Just because you folk are words on a screen doesn't mean you're not every bit my friends as the people I see every day.

(Sorry, trying to decide whether to go watch Star Trek now or risk missing the repeat tomorrow. I don't know why this is a harrowing decision.It's only a television programme.It's only a television programme. *hisses*:P)

@Clara: I'll be glad to see you when you get back. I hope you have fun. :)

No one really knows themselves. You are describing writing in a really... basic, scientific way, and you ARE right. (I'm beginning to wonder if you're a left brain or a right brain.) But in my mind, writing is essentially creating a story and stringing words together to express it.

I was strolling through the streets of MyHomeTownVille with a friend, just before a torrential rainstorm, and I thought I'd show her one of the hole-in-the-wall fine art galleries. So we ducked in there, and as we did so I saw a sign out from that said HELP WANTED: CURATOR ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS.So, while inside, I casually mentioned to the lady who ran the place that I might be available for the Saturday shift, though I couldn't do it on Sunday, due to Church.

SHE LITERALLY FELL TO HER KNEES AND BEGGED FOR ME TO DO SO.

She gave me her business card and begged me to get back to her as soon as possible. She said she wouldn't be able to pay me in money, but she could pay me in art classes, if I wanted. She said I can bring school books or art supplies or my laptop, so I could get TONS of stuff done while I curate the art museum.So, it looks like my Saturdays are going to be spent curating an art gallery, without pay. Despite this, I imagine that "Art Museum Curator" will look good on my résumé.What do you think about this whole situation? It's official, by now. I now have a key to the gallery, and a list of artists that I need to memorize.

@Mushroom: You are giving it in its most basic form. But by doing that, you're failing to capture all the beauty and meaning that is poured into and poured out of (#Taia) writing. And that's like when someone spends ages writing a heartfelt speech to someone to try and give them advice because they want to stop people being hurt, and the person who receives the speech manages to overlook all the advice and all the reasoning and all the correct summing-up of the situation, and focus on the one tiny fact that person got incorrect.They're just totally missing the entire point of it, and all the beauty and meaningfulness is escaping them. They didn't write that speech to have all their facts meticulously cross-examined. They wrote it to help, to make a difference, because their friends were hurting and they were hurting, and . . .All that meaning. You can, theoretically, ignore all that meaning, but the meaning is the important part. It's the part that . . . means something. "Means something." You know what connotations and implications come with that phrase, and they're attached to the word 'meaning' (or in this case 'means') because 'means' means that much. See? See what effects the word 'means' gives off? See how much 'means' means?That's how important meaning is. Society and language has subconsciously elevated the word to immense importance.. . .I'm not sure any of this is understandable anymore. :P

Crap, sorry. I'll be back in an hour.I can't miss Spock in a beanie hat, I can't. I'll be back later, I hope, to read up and comment and whatnot if y'all are still around. Or maybe if you're not.idk.*hugs*You are all perfect.Bye!

My mother is the sort of mother who insists upon meeting any little old ladies I might associate with, in case they are the type of cannibal old lady that is so common in MyHomeTownVille. But, once she met her, she agreed to let me do the thing.So, it appears that I am officially a museum curator. Time to put my stellar Hotel-managing skills to good use.

@Annika: I call that life 'real life', though. This life is just words on a screen, to use Mushroom's reasoning, and most of it, we imagine as we go along, in large ways like roleplay and little ways like hugging each other. It's fabulous, what imagination can do, really. :)

Just because I'm seeing its basics, it does not mean that I am missing the point of language. Language is meant to aid our lives in many different ways. As a linguistics student, I am well aware of the necessity of language, but also why we have literature. I am not missing the point of it, because the notion of the symbols being what they are is beautiful itself. If anything, Star, it is you who is missing the beauty in what I have said. It's the fact that something so simplistic as sounds and symbols can convey powerful emotions that makes it all the more beautiful.Sometimes the most simple outlooks on things can generate the most beauty.

@Mushroom: Sorry - I didn't mean YOU were missing the point of it, I meant the definition was. :P Sorry.And of course that's what makes it beautiful.(*looks around for someone to start singing*)Yes. Of course that's fabulous. I was marvelling whilst I was typing. But the thing is, it's so beautiful, and so immense, and so powerful, and so therefore, WRITING IS BEAUTIFUL AND IMMENSE AND POWERFUL. TO CREATE SOMETHING LIKE THAT IS WOW.Also, you're more talented at writing than a lot of people I know, Mushroom. :)

The Audience: OH MY GOSH CLARA NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU THINK THIS IS STAR AND LUCIANA'S CONVERSATION.

*meekly* I think that the conversation you are having is one that has been had many times before, and is one that is as open to interpretation as classical versus modern art, or anime subs versus anime dubs, or anything like that. One should not read something that one cannot take beauty, import, and meaning from. Though with more analytical minds see the beauty in the majestic simplicity of twenty-six letters, and others see it in the multi-colored mural of the artistic vision. Both mindsets are beautiful and poetic. The scientist would not be a good scientist if he did not also have a touch of the poet, and the poet would be nonsense if he did not communicate through the narrowest of colors and letters.

There are too many things within the topic of fiction to be in awe of, Star. There is no missing the point with it, because everyone sees different things within it to adore. Some people just don't see its beauty. They're not missing the point, they're just seeing different things.

And, first off, you had better still be here or I will personally drive the fuck up to Rotherham (I think I spelled that right) and sit you down in front of your screen so you read this.

Right, so, anyway, your comment earlier.

"Sorry, I'm just feeling really crappy and especially guilty about certain people leaving after some of the e-mails I've received from said people. I re-read them earlier. I just feel like I want to cry or be sick or something, but I can't. I'm just being bitchy, I'm really sorry."

If that is about me, stop it. Stop feeling like that. Instantly.I know that I didn't reply to you, and I am so sorry. But I couldn't find the right words.My thoughts were, and still are, jumbled and I have no idea right now about what I want. At times I still feel how I expressed to you in my email, but other times I feel undefeatable. It just depends on context.But not for one minute is that your fault. And so I want to stop feeling guilty and like you want to cry right now. Because it is not your fault. I wanted to email you, but I just didn't know how to.But you wanna know something? I printed off your email and stuck it on my wall.Because that was the email that made me cry in the middle of train carriage and not care. That was the email that makes me get teary eyed everytime I re-read it. That is the email that makes me feel like I'm worth something and I'm good enough whenever I'm feeling down.That email you sent me was incredible. My response would have just been insignificance and not worthwhile in comparison.THAT is why I never responded to you, and why I still sit with the email up on my screen so often, my cursor hovering over reply but never actually clicking it.

I love you to bits. More than I ought to really, because you make me awfully jealous the majority of the time. But who the fuck cares? I love you to bits and that’s what matters.

Now, if that comment wasn’t about me, then whoops. HOWEVER that doesn’t take away from what I’ve said. And, instead, you should think that even if you’re feeling bad about whoever else left the blog, some still cares about you this must, even if they are an illiterate ass and didn’t know how to reply.

I've been...err...MIA for a while. Decided to take some time away from the blog.But apart from that I'm good thanks.Apart from the fact that I'm refreshing the page every split second to see if Luce has replied to my comment :/ reply, goddamn you! Or at least acknowledge it so I know you've read it (I know I'm being totally unfair because I never replied to your email, but that was a different matter entirely because that was amazing)

Oh yes! Sorry for not replying Flora! My email hated me and wasn't working, then it decided to work but the email wasn't there (?) so yeah...So so sorry, can you re-send it? I was like "OMFG UNIVERSE LET ME READ THIS AND I WILL OWE YOU!!!!!!"

Thank you for saying what you have said, Flora. It means a lot to me. Thank you.

I would reply with something more substantial, however my mood has yet to improve and my linguistic abilities often float around aimlessly whilst my moods are as negative as they currently are. Apologies.

C watches films all the time . . .When we talk, she often tells me about things she's watched . . .I guess it makes it interesting that I don't know them. She's really good at telling stories, so she can tell me about films really well . . .I can't tell stories . . .

Annika, if you're still around, that sounds awesome. A grand way to spend Saturdays, I'd say, plus the useful experience. I hope you enjoy it. :) ^^

... It's curious how we can listen to people and empathize with or understand their points of view on something, but when that something is yourself, it's a lot harder to see that. Because I suppose you don't have a mirror for insight, and it's a lot harder to see what others see of you when you spend so much time with yourself. Like... seeing the front of a house, and only ever speculating what the inside looked like. And if somebody described the inside of that house to you, and it's hard to see that, because it doesn't fit your experience kind of. idk if that's right, but, like...I don't know. It's harder to see yourself from other viewpoints.

But... If we learn to consider and understand others' viewpoints on abortion and euthanasia and whether a film was good or bad, and why... Do you think we could also learn to understand and consider other's viewpoints on ourselves, in the same sense?Like, if you spend enough time listening and learning, can you learn that? And understand it and believe it, and accept it just as we accept those opinions on other matters?Could that, like...idk. I don't know where that came from, I'm just thinking, and it's easier to think with the words being written, sometimes, because you have words as forms to put the brainwaves into, kind of. idk. I'm just thinking. :P

(*sigh* YouTube, it's not hard to understand - I want to comment. I want to keep my YouTube name, that's why IT IS MY YOUTUBE NAME. And no, I don't want my channel to have a Google+ account. IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE THESE THINGS?)

It's not that bad with Google+. You can actually reply to comments and stuff, I think. Idk, the comment format changed round a bit after I Google+ed myself.It was just taking so much effort to deal with it. -_-

(Star - YouTube has actually changed. I mean, it used to be fast and easy to use. Now it's slow, and horrible to use and it also suggests my optimum viewing quality is where there are huge blocks of colour on the screen when I can easily view it in HD with next to no buffering.)

(They are. Google and Facebook. *sigh*I think it's unfair. Huge, rich internet companies taking over smaller ones who have a good idea. YouTube used to be awesome. And now I can't even comment on a video without changing my name or signing myself up for a Google product I don't want.)

(Yeah, I know... And all apps are used for is to spy on people. I don't download anything that has anything more than wanting access to the internet unless it needs it like a camera app needs access to the camera. No way am I downloading a wallpaper that wants to log my phone calls.)

(See, me being optimistic and gullible and prone not to worry about things until they're on top of me and it's too late, I generally tend to think "Ah, it'll be fine.":POne day, my computer is going to be hacked due to this attitude.Although - log your phone calls? Yeah, that's off. O_OAnd - yeah. However, I guess if someone wants to, they can decide to make your online life a misery no matter what you do, so . . .)

I've heard of people who've had people take ordinary pictures of them and Photoshop their heads onto naked bodies, and then it affects their job opportunities and all sorts and they haven't even taken any inappropriate pictures . . . :/